An Osaka Omurice Shop Is Borrowing BentOn Until December

Dearbros opened on October 20 inside BentOn, the Japanese café at 156 East 45th Street in Midtown. The Osaka shop is known for omurice, fried rice under a soft omelette. Eater New York says the pop-up runs through the end of the year. The Infatuation called it a soft open two days later. On the board are toppings such as wagyu sukiyaki and braised pork belly, Eater reported, with the pork in limited supply while the kitchen settles in.

Omurice is yōshoku, Japanese Western-style cooking. Osaka’s Hokkyokusei has long claimed an early ketchup-rice version wrapped in egg; Tokyo has another story. Dearbros’s house plate is Kakuniel=Young: a teriyaki-leaning omurice finished with kakuni, soft-braised pork belly. The shop’s New York Instagram account says the eggs sit on nine kinds of dashi.

BentOn already holds the Midtown storefront. Its site lists weekday lunch from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., a shorter Saturday window, and Sundays closed for office bentos and grab-and-go. A Dearbros New York Instagram post on October 21 listed weekday hours from 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday closed, with pork-belly omurice capped at fifteen servings a day at the start. On weekdays Dearbros starts after BentOn’s lunch ends. On Saturday the two share the afternoon. BentOn keeps the lease. Dearbros borrows the kitchen and the seats until December.

Daisuke Yamamoto owns Dearbros through Big Mountain Diner. The Senriyama shop by Kansai University opened in 2006 as an American-saloon izakaya. A Sennichimae branch near Dotonbori followed in July 2023. Daily Sports reported in July 2024 that Yamamoto took Kakuniel=Young to Japan Fes in Times Square, planning five hundred plates at fifteen dollars and buying ingredients locally. He told the paper he had wanted a United States shop for years, and that the festival let him watch reactions and meet partners. The BentOn months stretch that test across the rest of the calendar.

The menu stays short: eggs, rice, dashi, kakuni or wagyu, and a daily limit on the pork. The pop-up is booked through the end of the year at 156 East 45th Street.